Foundation damage is every homeowner's worst nightmare and can be caused by a wide variety of unpredictable factors. Too much moisture in the soil surrounding your home's foundation can lead to serious damage and cracking, especially if the soil on your property is rich in expansive clay. However, the opposite is also true, and too little moisture can cause just as much chaos.

How Do Droughts Cause Foundation Damage?

When heavy rains or localized flooding saturate expansive soil with moisture, individual particles of clay expand massively in size as they absorb water. This causes a significant increase in the soil's volume, placing your foundation under immense strain and causing the soil beneath the foundation to shift. This combination of stresses can cause foundation slabs to crack and crumble.

When an extended drought occurs, the soil around your home's foundation can become very dry. As expansive clay particles get drier, and the moisture they have absorbed is drained away or evaporated, they can shrink, causing a net decrease in the soil volume around your foundation.

As the drying soil shrinks and contracts, it falls away from the exterior edges of the foundation, and the slab loses its structural support. Soil shrinking during severe droughts can allow your foundation to shift position and/or sink at an uneven rate, placing the concrete under massive shearing stress and causing cracks to appear. 

Contracting soil during droughts can also cause voids to appear beneath the foundation, where patches of soil rich in expansive clays lose more volume than the surrounding soil. These voids can cause significant localized strain and may cause severe cracks in the concrete directly over the void(s). 

How Can You Detect Foundation Damage Caused By Droughts?

Shrinking soil caused by droughts is a similar process to soil settling, a common cause of foundation damage. However, it can occur more quickly and unpredictably than ordinary settling, potentially causing much more damage in a short amount of time. You should therefore try to identify the signs of drought-induced foundation damage as quickly as possible.

Check your foundation slab for any visible cracking or crumbling, making sure to check areas hidden by floorboards or other floor coverings. You should also check your walls for cracking—basement walls are particularly vulnerable to damage caused by shifting foundations.

If your home doesn't have a basement, the flooring in the room(s) directly over the foundation slab may become uneven. You may also notice that doors and windows no longer close properly, or become stuck in their jambs. This occurs when your home starts to sink unevenly due to soil voids, and is a clear sign that your foundation is at risk of severe damage.

What Should You Do If Drought Conditions Are Damaging Your Foundation?

If the area you live in is experiencing a drought, and you start to notice the tell-tale signs of foundation damage and/or shifting, you should call in a professional foundation repair service as soon as possible.

These services can inspect your foundation for signs of damage, repair any cracks in the foundation slab, and install new supports and foundation piles as necessary to keep your home in one piece. They can also give you advice on how to modify the soil composition underneath your property, which should limit any future problems.

To learn more about this topic, contact a local repair contractor.